Suspect accused of lottery ticket embezzlement

A Springfield teenager lost his job as a convenience store clerk and is now facing a criminal embezzlement charge after he allegedly helped himself to over $500 worth of lottery scratch tickets.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150407/THISJUSTIN/150409990

Teen store clerk accused of stealing lottery tickets By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT | April 08,2015 WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Springfield man working at a convenience store faces a criminal embezzlement charge after allegedly helping himself to more than $500 worth of lottery scratch tickets in an effort to pay for some damage he had caused to his girlfriend’s car. Austin O’Connor, 19, pleaded innocent to a single felony count of embezzlement at his arraignment this week. He was ordered to stay out of the Circle K in Springfield as a condition of his pretrial release. Springfield Police Officer Daniel Deslauriers said he received a call Monday from Circle K General Manager Leeann Curtis, who had noticed the lottery ticket sales for the store were $513 dollars short. Deslauriers said when he met with Curtis, she said she had reviewed the store’s logs and traced the problem to the night shift, when O’Connor had been working. Curtis told the officer that, looking over security camera video from that night shift, she saw O’Connor take several tickets during the course of the evening, along with a calzone, an energy drink and a king-sized candy bar, without appearing to pay for any of the items. That evening, the pair confronted O’Connor about the missing items when he arrived for work and, after a pause, O’Connor admitted he had taken the tickets, Deslauriers wrote in an affidavit filed with the court. “O’Connor stated that he had broken his girlfriend’s car and NEEDED MONEY to fix it,” Deslauriers wrote, adding that O’Connor allegedly said he cashed $45 dollars of winning tickets at the Circle K and an additional $100 dollars in winning tickets at the Penguin Mart. Police put the total amount of restitution being sought for the missing tickets, the winnings and the snack items at 666 dollars. O’Connor faces a potential maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the felony charge.